In order to trace the evolution of the arábigo-andaluz music (music from Muslim Spain) after the Reconquest, we need to look toward the Maghrib. The main figure of this repertoire is al-Ha'ik, who lived in Tetuan in the 18th century. In his work, Kunnas (Songbook) are collected the poems that formed the base of the nubas (seven hundred and twenty-one poems). which he catalogued in eleven large families that have come to be the eleven nubas of present times. Al-Ha'ik did not transcribe the music, but indicated which out of 24 possible modalities was required, giving a principal and a secondary mode for each one of the nubas. he also annotated the rhythmic formulas that constitute the framework of the different movements of the eleven nubas that are preserved.

Musical transcription with occidental annotation of the repertoire has, since 1930, allowed for a greater understanding of the mechanisms of the arabigo-andaluz musical legacy, but it has never been a substitute for oral transmission, as this music is filled with adornments and turns that are impossible to annotate. Apiádate de mi pequeño corazón is a sana (song) that belongs to the btaihi rhythm (a cycle of 8 beats, subdivided in 3-3-2) of the nuba al-ussaq (the beloved), the eleventh in the order of al-Ha'ik, based on a G major diatonic scale. It has been transcribed by Abdelkrim Rais and Mohamed Briouel.

رفقأ على قليبى يا من أبلاه

الحب مزق قلبى حتى أفناه

أنت تعلم مابى ربى أنت الله

ت/جار الرقيب على وانكاونى العذال

لو كان يا حبيبى قلبى يحمل

Take pity on my little heart

You who tortures it so.

Love has broken it

And left it to die.

You know how much it holds

Only you, Allah, you are my master.

Unjust was the Vigilante with me

Wounds they have opened, those who censure me.

Ay, my beloved, if my heart

Could only bear it.

2. De Antequera partió el moro - The Moor took leave of Antequera

Is a frontier ballad which narrates the fall of Antequera on the 28th of September. 1410.
It was famous because of the importance of the city, the fact that the governor (Alkarmen) held out for 5 months. and because of the size of the Moorish King's (Usuf III) army. Some 100 kilometers from Granada. Antequera was a key strongpoint within the Nasrid kingdom. It was called Singylia by Romans and renamed Antequera ( The Victorious. The Grandiose) by the Arabs. Don Fernando, infante of Castille and at that time regent for his nephew Juan II, was the victor in this battle and was thereafter called "Don Fernando el de Antequera".

The lively sentiment expressed in this ballad indicates that it was probably written immediately after the events it describes, although it is true that the texts to which we have access have been revised and rewritten and sometimes have an incoherent and even propagandistic ending. However that may be. the song begins:

The Moor took leave of Antequera

three hours before dawn

with letters in his hand

in which he asked for help

Menéndez Pidal explains two characteristics of these early ballads: an introduction with no preamble, which places us in the middle of the action, and an ending which cuts the narrative short at its most intense moment.

Little is known of the music to which this ballad was set. In1554. nearly 140 years after the fall of the Antequera, Miguel de Fuenllana published in Sevilla the "Libro de musica para vihuela intitulado Orphenica Lyra". in which he included one and a half verses of a wonderful untitled piece, and advised: Siguense los dos tonos de romances viejos compuestos a quatro. Y esta primero es de Morales (follow the two tonos of the early ballads composed for four voices. The first is by Morales.) The text of the song begins:

The Moor took leave of Antequera

from Antequera he did leave

he carried letters in his hand

letters with a message.

Fuenllana took this work from Cristobal Morales who lived a generation before him and who, like him, was a blind musician from Seville. But nothing by "el divino Morales", as he was called in his times. has reached us, which causes us to suppose that Fuenllana took the melody and the text from the oral tradition and developed it with a polyphony characteristic of the 16th century.

The idea of taking a popular song and arranging it according to the tastes of a specific social environment was not new, but it was in this period that printing enabled texts to be circulated. The texts of the ballads began to be written and published in sheets in an attempt to avoid alterations, but the music continued to be passed on orally, as it was easier to remember a melody than a historical text. So the written music that Fuenllana left us is of great importance.

The Moor took leave of Antequera

three hours before dawn.

with letters in his hand

in which he begged for help.

In blood they were written.

but not far want of ink.

The Moor that carried them

was one hundred and twenty years old

a horseman on a mare

for a stallion he wanted not.

Alone with a young page

who kept him company.

the mare was light of foot

and stood out from all the others:

through the fields of Archidona

in a loud voice he said:

-Oh. good king. if you knew

of my sad message.

you would tear out our hair

and those of your full beard!

-Welcome. Moor.

Welcome you are.

-May Allah keep you, my king.

and all your company.

-Tell me, what news do you bring me

of Antequera, my village?

-I'll tell you the news, good king.

if you grant me my life..

-Your life is granted

if in you there is no betrayal.

-never would Allah permit

such great villany!

but your highness must know

what you should have known already

that the village of Antequera

was in such great peril.

by the infante don Fernando

it was besieged

Good king, if you do not go its rescue

very soon it will be the lost.

The king. upon hearing that

shuddered with grief:

and suffering greatly

shed abundant tears

and tore out his hair

so great was his pain:

noone could console him.

for he did not permit it:

but upon recovering

in a loud voice he said

-My trumpeters, sound

your fine silver trumpets:

my horsemen, be assembled.

all those of my kingdom:

Go with my two brothers

to Archidona. my village

to the rescue of Antequera

key of my domain.

And with this command

a great Moorish troop was assembled:

when the battle was being waged

so many of ours wounded

for one-hundred and twenty dead

there were fifteen thousand Moors.

3. Los sospiros no sosiegan

4. ¿Qué me queréis, caballero? - What do you want of me, caballero?

This is an anonymous work from the Cancionero Musical de Palacio (C.M.P.). Francisco Salinas (1577) mentions this carol referring to it as a cantione usitatissima. Another version of it is found amoung the works of Fernandez de Heredia (Valencia, 1562).

What do you want of me,

caballero?

Married I am, husband I have.

Married I am, and content so to be

with a most honorable gentleman,

well bred and well disposed,

who I love more than I love

myself.

Married I am, husband I have.

Married happily I am

but not free from sorrow,

for so foolishly I acted

that I punish myself.

Married I am, husband I have.

5. La España - The Spain

Is the work called Tres III "Sobre el canto llano de la Alta", signed by Antonio in el "Libro de cifra nueva para tecla, arpa y vihuela" that Luis Venegas de Henestroa published in Alcalá de Henares in 1557. It consists of 138 pieces by different authors. This is the third piece for three voices. The intermediate or tenor voice has a gregorian melody or canto llano that is called "Alta danza" or "La España". Of unknown origin, it is considered to be the earliest courtly dance of Europe. It is believed that "La España" was first used by Domenico de Piacenza, a dance master from Ferrara, in 1416. The theme was used by a multitude of authors in their compositions throughout the 15th. 16th and 17th centuries, with different names, such as: Spagnoleta, Basse danse du Roy de Spaingne. II Re di Spagna. Calata a la Spagnola. The old Spagnoleta, La bassa Castiglya, Castille la nouvelle, etc.

The blind Antonio de Cabezón (1510-1566), court organist for Carlos V, for the infantas Maria and Juana, and for Felipe V, was a friendly, humble, and simple man who knew how to sing to the glory of God and to entertain men. He created a Spanish school of organ music filled with mysticism and deep human sentiment. Most of his work was compiled and published by his son, Hernando de Cabezón. twelve years after his death.

6. No ay que decirle el primor - Do not praise her splendor

This is preserved in the "Libro de Tonos Humanos", musical manuscript n' 1262, in the National Library of Madrid. this is a book of songs that was compiled by a musician in the first half of the 17th century for the entertainment of a noble. In this period, the term tonos humanos was synonymous with tonadas or profane songs. It is dramatic piece and was sung in the first performance of Cervante's "El rufián dichoso".

Do not praise her splendor

nor her enormous worth

I know that she is a young lass

of the kind that takes one's breath away.

She is so gallant and so conceited

so brave and arrogant

that she has sworn that she, alone,

can triumph over the god mars.

She knows that she is courted

by the little flowers and birds,

she would put down to fear

whatever you do to please her

May she die with the confusion

of her arrogance, for she brings

as a victorious coat of arms

rays with which she will burn herself.

I'll not flatter her with flowers

nor will I flatter other beauties,

this amorous celebration

in held only in her honor.

As she considers herself a goddess

she avails herself of her splendor

and she wants the world to know

that no beauty is her equal.

Although her worth is vast

and her beauty immense

he who looks at her believing

should exercise great care.

If she boasts of being cruel

may she die at the hand of cruelty

and come to a wretched end.

as I am dying of love.

7. De la dulce mi enemiga - From my sweet enemy

This is from the same cancionero (C.M.P.) and is signed " Gabriel". Perhaps this is the same Gabriel el Músico named in other cancioneros, who was cantor in the King's Chapel until Fernando el Católico's (King Fernando) death in 1516, at which time he entered the service of Admiral Fadriquez Enríquez. This work appears later in the Cancionero de Enamorados (Lovers Songbook). which was compiled by Juan de Linares and published in 1573. This version is anonymous and has a longer text.

8. Que bonito niño chiquito - What a precious little child

This is an anonymous work from the " Cancionero Musical de la Colombina" (C.M.C.)., which was compiled in about 1490 and contains ninety-five works by different contemporary authors. It is preserved in the Colombina Library of Seville and has been transcribed by Miguel Querol (Barcelona, 1971).

What a precious Little child

The Virgen gave birth.

two good women

attended her

and delighted the child.

After she gave birth

the Virgen with prudence.

presently they adored him

and revered the child.

And the swaddling clothes

that are not of twisted silk,

in a manger

the Virgen wrapped the child.

the Virgen Mary

a young girl.

in a wide girdle

tightly bound the child.

Angels from heaven

sweetly sang

"Gloria in excelsist Deo"

and calmed the child.

INSTRUMENTOS - INSTRUMENTS

All the instruments used in the recording are copies of original instruments or are Reproductions of the iconography, and all belong to the period we wish to recall.

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